Student achievement and the use of the program Study Island

Abstract

Computer Aided Instruction (CAI) has been used for many years in an attempt to increase student achievement. Districts have spent millions of dollars implementing different forms of CAI that may or may not be working. This study was an attempt to describe one such district and its CAI implementation. The study sought to complete three tasks. The first task was to create a description of the student use of a specific CAI, Study Island. Second, it examined grade level and graduation year data to see if there were correlations between using Study Island and achievement levels on the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCA). Lastly, the study examined correlations between the proficiency levels that students achieved on Study Island and their proficiency levels on the MCA. The results of the study found several areas of significant results. First, students' scores on the MCA were significantly higher after the year that Study Island was included as a supplement to their curriculum. It is important to remember that this is not proving causation. This study was observational and not scientific in nature. Because of this, confounding variables do exist that could be causing the observed differences. Second, significant correlations between the use of Study Island and increased achievement levels on the MCA were found. The students' proficiency levels on Study Island were highly correlated with their proficiency levels on the MCA. Using regression analysis, the researcher determined the percent of questions that a student should answer correctly on Study Island to predict that she/he will achieve proficiency on the MCA.